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Turkey’s Salt Lake becomes ‘flamingo cemetery’ amid climate change
Turkey’s Salt Lake becomes ‘flamingo cemetery’ amid climate change
Turkey’s Salt Lake (Tuz Gölü) is drying amid climate change, turning a paradise for flamingos into a “cemetery,” a wildlife photographer says. Click through for the story in photos...
Speaking to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, Emel Gülseren Sarıgül said she recently embarked on trips to a number of areas in the lake to photograph the life of flamingos but instead saw “incredibly horrifying scenes.”
“Unfortunately, the lake has been dried and it has become a cemetery for flamingos as their babies cannot find food there anymore,” she added.
Sarıgül called for “urgent measures” because there are still hundreds of baby flamingos in the basin that “are unable to fly long distances and face death due to thirst.”
Tuz Gölü is the second largest lake in Turkey and is located about 105 kilometers northeast of the Central Anatolian province of Konya. It has been home to the largest flamingo colony in the Mediterranean for decades.
Each year, thousands of greater flamingo chicks emerge from their nests by the lake.
The lake also provides most of Turkey’s salt but has been at risk of drying out in recent years.
“The Salt Lake is already under risk due to drought and climate change and this will further trigger the ecological crisis,” Chamber of Environmental Engineers head Baran Bozoğlu said in May.
Anadolu Agency
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